Eager to keep violent sex predators behind bars, state lawmakers and voters in 2006 vastly expanded the pool of inmates who can be forced into mental hospitals when their prison terms end.

The early result: The state spent about

$25 million more last year to screen and evaluate thousands of newly eligible inmates, none of whom it appears were committed to a state institution.

Part of the reason is a backlog of cases. Prosecutors say they are filing more court petitions for commitment, but delays mean it often takes more than a year to reach trial.

But a bigger factor, say those who evaluate sex criminals, is that so few of the newly eligible convicts meet the definition of a sexually violent predator.

“We were really identifying the highest-risk sex offenders for the most part” prior to the changes, said Amy Phenix, a psychologist who evaluates inmates and trains other evaluators under a contract with the state Department of Mental Health. “I haven’t noted any cases where they wouldn’t have qualified before, and they do now, that I would recommend for commitment.”

In legislation and again in Proposition 83, the list of crimes that qualify an inmate for commitment under the state’s program for SVPs grew from seven to 35. Also, the state no longer requires multiple victims to qualify an inmate. Now, one crime will do.

The changes brought a wave of soon-to-be-released inmates up for evaluation to determine if they have a diagnosed mental disorder that makes them “likely to engage in sexually violent, predatory criminal conduct without appropriate treatment and custody.”

Referrals from corrections officials to the mental health agency ballooned from an average of 45 per month to nearly 750, according to agency data. The number of SVP candidates who were given full psychological evaluations rose from about 19 per month in the year before the change to about 206 — or 240 in the year before the change, to nearly 2,500.

The swell has led to delays in ordering up evaluations for inmates who are approaching their release dates, and a nearly sixfold rise in the number of former inmates being held at the state mental hospital in Coalinga past the end of their sentences, pending their commitment trials. The state pays about $12,500 a month to house them, more than twice the cost of a prison bed.

In the meantime, the number of commitments barely rose, from 24 to 27 (an average of two per month to 2.25). All of them qualified under the earlier law, said agency spokeswoman Nancy Kincaid, citing an informal survey of county prosecutors.

One reason, say psychologists, is that some disorders can be diagnosed only with recurring behavior over at least six months. For many inmates with a single sex offense, there is no verifiable pattern.

“It’s casting a larger net to look for more of the fish you want to find,” said clinical psychologist Mark Miculian, who does SVP evaluations for the state. “You are also going to capture a lot of fish you may not want.”

For the full evaluations, two psychologists are assigned to independently evaluate each inmate. If they disagree, another two are assigned. The state pays about $7,500 for each pair of evaluations, said Kincaid. The annual cost for evaluations alone this year is projected at $27 million.

Supporters say the new law will prevent some of the worst violent offenders from slipping through the cracks. Critics, including some mental health experts, say it has done little more than feed a cottage industry for state-hired psychologists.

“It lowers the threshold so greatly that the (state agency) is flooded with cases now, and it still doesn’t change the ultimate number of people who get committed,” said Dr. Douglas Tucker, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco. “It’s silly, actually.”

Tucker does similar assessments for the state of Washington, which in 1990 became the first of 17 states with SVP commitment laws.

Washington’s SVP law also sets the bar at a single offense.

“It’s good employment for psychologists, but it doesn’t really achieve anything,” he said. “You’re going to get a lot of people who don’t have a sexual disorder, who just got drunk.”

Prosecutors and some evaluators point to cases of newly eligible inmates that fit the criteria for an SVP and would have been released without the changes in the law. Among the added crimes are continuous sexual abuse of a child and assault or kidnapping with intent to commit a host of sexual offenses. Prior to the changes, those “intent” crimes did not count.

In Contra Costa County, there is one pending SVP case that would not have qualified prior to the change. In Alameda County, prosecutors have filed commitment petitions against five inmates who would not have qualified earlier.

Among them are Eugene Pingitore, 71, who was convicted in 2004 on one count of a lewd and lascivious act for repeated oral copulation with a boy under 14; and David Allen, 39, who committed several sex crimes as both a juvenile and adult, including sexual battery and attempted rape — but only one that would have qualified before the change in the law, court records show.

“We would have never seen these cases” before, said prosecutor Mas Morimoto.

Dr. Clark Clipson, who has evaluated hundreds of inmates for the state, noted a young man who had molested his half-sister as a teenager, then returned as an adult and did it again. He was not prosecuted fully in juvenile court, said Clipson, so it didn’t count.

“During the interview he was fairly open about his preference for pre-pubescent girls,” said Clipson, who said he assessed the man as an SVP.

Controversy has surrounded such laws since states began to pass them nearly two decades ago as a way to keep violent predators in custody past their prison terms. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld them over claims that they constitute ex post facto punishment.

Since California’s law went into effect in 1996, 582 offenders have been committed under the program.

Fewer than a dozen offenders have undergone a five-step treatment program and been released, according to the agency. More than 100, however, have been released through court decisions.

The new laws sought to reduce those cases by making SVP commitments indeterminate, removing the right to a new trial every two years.

Now, 462 SVPs are committed in state hospitals, with another 231 there awaiting their trials.

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